No More Strangers

"I'm Elsie." Elsie returned softly. "Where am I mister Cluck cluck?" she asked, staying under the bed. "I was with my daddy till I fell asleep, but we were playing princess"

"Well, sweetheart, if you'll come out from under the bed I'll try to explain it to you. It might be a little hard for you to understand, though."

Elsie crawled out from under the bed and looked up at Cluck with wide gray eyes. "What do you mean?" she asked, her voice wavering slightly in fear.

"Well, sweetheart..." Cluck began, looking uneasy. "Well, why don't you come over here so I can talk to you better?"

Elsie stood up and slowly made her way over to Cluck to stand just out of his reach. "What?" She asked again.

"Well, sweetie," he said, frowning uncharacteristically, "people can only come here if they've died."

"Died?" Elsie asked, frowning also. "Like, gone to heaven?"

"Well, this place is in between where we are when we're alive and where Heaven is. If you're here, that means there's something you still have to do before you can go to Heaven. You understand, honey?"

Elsie's frown deepened. "I... I can't go to heaven?" she asked, her voice wavering. "B-but nanna said that all good girls go to heaven. I was good, I listened to daddy!" Her eyes started to tear up. "I don't remember getting her, I just felt real sleepy and daddy tucked me in like always an- an-" and then Elsie just burst into tears, unable to understand how or why she was dead.

Cluck gently pulled the crying girl to his chest and stroked her hair. "Shhhh, honey, shhh. It's okay."

Elsie tried to push him away from her, sobs wracking her tiny body. "NO!" She screamed "I WANT MY DADDY! DON'T TOUCH ME, I WANT MY DADDY!! DADDY!!!"

Cluck held tighter, clutching the tiny child to his chest. His face, though she couldn't see it, was contorted in pain. She didn't know it yet, but she was a Banshee, and the sound of their screaming was physically painful.

Finally Elsie just broke down into noisy sobs and stopped fighting Cluck. it wasn't long after that that the poor girl sobbed herself right to sleep.

When she finally fell asleep in his arms, Cluck tucked her into bed. He left the room quietly, but came back moments later with a comic book in hand and sat at the foot of her bed, reading quietly. He didn't much want to leave to poor child alone when she was so scared and confused.

When Elsie woke up, she didn't scream, she didn't cry, really she barely moved. All she did was curl into a ball and pull the blanket up to her chin.

Cluck gently reached over and patted her on the head soothingly. "Poor baby. I'm so sorry."

Elsie merely shrugged his hand away. And she stayed like that for a long time. Probably an entire day. When she finally did move again, she sat up and and tugged the hem of Cluck's shirt. "I have to go to the baf'room." She mumbled, not looking him in the eye.

"Okay, sweetie," he said kindly. He picked her up gently and carried her down the hall to the bathroom, waiting a few steps away so as not to invade her privacy. He felt so bad for the poor, sweet little child.

Being a 'big girl' Elsie could go to the bathroom all by herself. She had to stand on her tippy toes to reach in order to wash her hands so getting the towel to dry them was out of the question. She dried them on her shirt instead and walked out to shyly grab Cluck's hand.

Cluck immediately scooped the tiny girl up into his arms and grinned widely at her. "Hey, I have an idea. A fun one."

Elsie held onto his neck and looked up at him. "What kinda fun idea?" she asked, rubbing an eye with her fist absently.

"Why don't we decorate your room today?" he asked, grinning at her. "We can paint it whatever color you want."

Elsie's eyes widened in awe. "We can? can we paint it pink like my old one? and make a pretty castle on the wall?"

"We can make pretty castles on all the walls, if you want," Cluck replied seriously.

Elsie hugged him tightly with a small noise of happiness that only a nine year old could produce. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou!! Thank you Cluck cluck!"